Unique holiday traditions

From kid-snatching devils to pickle hunts, here are five interesting holiday traditions from around the world.

Mysterious Mummers

Newfoundland and Labrador

Who’s dressed in layers of fabric, talks while inhaling, and walks with a hunch or limp? Mummers! These are some popular tactics people in Newfoundland and Labrador use to disguise their identity while mummering. Around the holidays, people go door-to-door dressed in whatever fabrics they can find to make them unrecognizable. Then, the hosts of the homes they visit try to guess the identities of the mummers. The hosts often ask the mummers questions or poke them to help guess their identity. Once the masked people are identified, the hosts usually offer them food and drinks. For more about mummering read Any Mummers ’Lowed In?: Christmas Mummering Traditions in Newfoundland and Labrador by Dale Jarvis

Seasonal Satan

Austria

St. Nick doesn’t travel alone in Austria around Christmas. Krampus, the Christmas devil, is St. Nick’s half-goat, half-demon counterpart. Instead of handing out gifts to good kids, Krampus keeps kids in check by punishing bad children. This evil figure swats wicked children with rusty chains before dragging them into the bellowing depths of hell. A nice bedtime story, isn’t it? Krampus is also celebrated in Germany, Bavaria, Hungary, Slovenia, Czech Republic, and Croatia. Around the holidays, people take to the streets dressed up as the devilish creature and scare children.

Horsing Around

Wales

The Mari Lwyd is a decorated horse skull that people carry door-to-door and challenge homeowners to a freestyle rhyming battle. If the Mari Lwyd’s group wins the challenge, the group enters the home and indulges in cakes, beer, and maybe even collects money. Inside the home, the group sometimes sings traditional songs and chants a farewell tune for the hosts. This tradition has largely died out in Wales but the Mari Lwyd can still be seen every December at the St Fagans National History Museum.

Giving Log 

Catalonia, Spain

The Tió de Nadal in Catalonia is a hollowed out log with a face, red hat, and a blanket to keep it warm leading up to Christmas. Starting on December 8 for the Immaculate Conception, family feeds the log every day until Christmas Eve. Then on that day, the family sings traditional songs as they beat the log with a stick. The kids then look under the Tió’s blanket and find gifts—the presents and sweets they put inside the log. The Tió then meets its fate in the fire.

Lucky Pickle

The German Christmas pickle is a debatable tradition. The tale is this: during the holidays, some German families hide a pickle in the tree. Some say the pickle is real, some say it’s simply an ornament. On Christmas morning, children search for the pickle and whoever finds it first gets an extra gift or a happy and healthy new year. Some of those native to Germany assure this is myth. Do you believe in the lucky pickle?